Table of Contents

Postings

Trump wants to use credit scores to keep immigrants out of the countryThe Department of Homeland Security has issued a terrible proposal that intends to use immigrants’ personal credit information as part of the assessment to qualify for a green card or visa. Using an irrelevant, often error-prone, measure like a credit score to assign immigration status is not only absurd, it misuses credit information, and places financial stress and economic harm on families.

Border wall funding is a waste of taxpayer dollarsFunding for a border wall has faced strong opposition from a diverse coalition of organizations that include Latino, civil rights, consumer, environmental, faith and border community groups. The coalition has spent months advocating against the militarization of the border and the vilification of border and immigrant communities. As Congress moves forward with the FY2019 appropriations process, we urge leadership to reject efforts to continue funding additional border wall construction that draws scarce resources away from urgently needed infrastructure.

Secretary DeVos called on to protect student loan borrowers of colorConsumer Action joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national advocate organizations, in sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, expressing strong concerns about the Department of Education’s recent changes to student loan servicing, debt collection, and higher education regulations and their impact on Black and Latino borrowers. These actions are inconsistent with the Department of Education’s responsibility to advance higher education and serve the interests of all students, including students of color.

Enough with the sneaky and harmful policy ridersAppropriations bills continue to be misused to undermine essential consumer and environmental safeguards through poisonous policy riders. Enough is enough! Advocates are asking Congress to oppose any FY 2018 bills that contain controversial riders regarding unpopular and dangerous initiatives that would otherwise never pass on their own.

The FHFA should make mortgages more accessible to people with LEPIn 2014, approximately 25.3 million individuals, roughly 9 percent of the U.S. population, were considered limited English proficient (LEP). Despite this sizable need and opportunity, the language needs of many current and potential homeowners are left unmet in the mortgage marketplace.

Requiring mobile passwords is a direct assault on fundamental rightsThe new Department of Homeland Security proposal that requires non-citizens disclose their social media passwords and frequently visited websites would enable border officials to invade people’s privacy by examining years of private emails, texts, and messages. It would expose travelers and everyone in their social networks, including potentially millions of U.S. citizens, to excessive, unjustified scrutiny. Consumer and privacy advocates joined together in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security to condemn this invasive proposal. Not only does this requirement fail to increase the security of U.S. citizens, it’s a direct assault on their fundamental rights and sets a horrible global precedent.

Social media surveillance proposal would prove ineffective and violates privacy rightsThe Department of Homeland Security's proposed policy to collect information on the social media profiles of foreign travelers violates the rights of travelers and their American friends, colleagues and family members. Coalition advocates wrote to the Department of Homeland Security opposing the Customs and Border Protection policy and argued that the rule change would do little to enhance national security and would open the door to greater spying on Americans.

Improving language access for homeowners is overdueCommunication improvements are needed in the mortgage industry for people who are not fluent in English. Currently there is no comprehensive system for collecting or assessing the language needs of homebuyers or of homeowners. In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, coalition partners recommend data collection improvements that would help the federal government address important issues that impact many households in today’s diverse marketplace.